About 500,000 illegal Afghan immigrants residing in Pakistan and Iran returned to their country.
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the interim Afghan government, indicated that the number of Afghans returning to their country from the neighboring countries of Pakistan and Iran in recent months is about 500,000.
The United Nations International Organization for Migration announced in its statement that the number of returnees to Afghanistan following Pakistan’s decision to return illegal Afghan immigrants approached 375,000.
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, security problems arose between the two countries. The Islamabad administration claims that the Pakistani Taliban, which it is fighting, is based in Afghanistan and that the Taliban administration has not taken action against this organization. On the other hand, the Taliban reject Pakistan’s claims and claim that they have nothing to do with the security problems in the country.
It gave Pakistan time
While discussions in this context have increased between the two countries in recent months, the Pakistani government has asked illegal immigrants living in the country who are unregistered, whose number exceeds 1.7 million, to leave Pakistan by next November 1. It was announced that those who had not left by this date would be deported.
On the other hand, the Taliban administration criticized Pakistan’s decision and demanded that Afghan migrants be treated well and given additional time to leave the country.
International institutions, especially the United Nations, also call on Pakistan to retract this decision. According to the United Nations, 60 percent of returnees are children.
Following the Pakistani decision, Iran also intensified repatriation operations of illegal Afghan migrants living in the country. (aa)